Sun sportswriters seem to relish losing

"Maybe you want it to be bad." So spoke a Stephen King character in his epic novel, "The Stand." I was struck by the line when I read it in the early 1980s, and it still gives me a bit of a psychological shudder. It's a twisted sentiment. And it's probably something I've thought a time or two in my life. Yikes.

More recently, however, it's seems to describe The Sun's stable of sportswriters, or at least the ones covering the Orioles. They want it to be bad.

I love following the O's. What a great season last year and what a promising season so far this year. They're 2 1/2 games out of first place and five games over .500. I was there for the lean years, and it's an enormous pleasure to have the team be competitive again. I love these players. And Buck Showalter? Just incredible.

That said, I've started to skip the sports section after the O's lose a game. I guess losing, with its potential doomsday implications, is a far richer subject for writers. Winning, on the other hand, is dull, I guess. Where's the drama in winning, unless it's a really, really big win? Where's the hand-wringing angst about this guy's or that guy's incipient collapse after a garden-variety win?

The sportswriters duly report and sometimes even celebrate the wins, but they seem to take perverse pleasure in agonizing over the losses. I don't want to wallow in the exaggerated doom and gloom that sullies the sports section after an O's loss. I'm not into delicious pain or whatever this reaction to sports team losses represents.

So, I was heartened to see the headline, "CRUSHED: Davis homers twice in O's comeback win" (May 30). Thank you!

Things had gotten to the point where I half-expected to see the headline, "Orioles don't lose," after an O's win.